Light Crusader is an isometric action-adventure game. It was developed by Treasure and published by Sega, released in 1995. I think it was their very last game on the system, at this point they were rushing to have it done before the market is gone, not unlike Alien Soldier. They say that they made all the maps in a very short period of time. 16 Megabit goodness. 4 save slots.
The game that you have here is nothing more than emulation of Sega Genesis version. Also, little tip, you can change language used for dialogue through debug cheatcode menu.
Now, technical part about Sega's emulation here:
The Sega Classic games that you purchase on Steam count as DLCs for "Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics" game that should appear in your library.
It has Bedroom HUB which is the one with many features yet lags for many and Simply Launcher which lacks Workshop and Online but at least it works just fine for everybody.
However, Simple Launcher has it's fair share of glitches as well. It can crash. And it does the second time you go to main menu, so always quit after saving there so it doesn't crash when you want to save next time!
Emulation itself, mostly sound, isn't that good but it does it's job. Also, yes, emulator supports quick saves.
As alternative, you can use external emulator to run games that you purchased. Sega kindly placed in all games that you purchased in "uncompressed ROMs" folder that program itself doesn't use, just change file extension to ".bin" or so. The file for this one being "LightCrusader_USA.SGD".
I also demand you to read digital manual of this game first. You can find it here on store page or go to "manuals" folder of game root and open "06 LC_PC_MG_EFIGS_US_v6.pdf".
And yep, this game includes saving. In-game saving, not emulator one. Bedroom HUB works fine but Simple Launcher one is buggy:
You have to remember, you have to close emulator in proper way, otherwise it will not have them actually saved in files. That means that you have to avoid crashing it or closing in different way.
Even more, if you load emulator-side saves, the emulator will not see in-game saves and will not be able to do in-game saves either. Even if it makes look as if it does.
So, a Treasure game. You might be wondering, what kind of crazy setting and plot these Japanese wackos came up with. Well. It's just Western medieval setting with knights and mages. That's it! Nothing unusual. Well, maybe meta-unusual, since it's the last thing you expect from Treasure. At least it's atmospheric.
You are David Lander, a graceful swordman who dares to challenge the darkness with his blindingly magnificent blond hair that he isn't afraid to sway left and right as he duckwalks through the deep dungeons to rescue villagers. All fix floors of it and a single town. Yep, the game is a big on a short side for RPG standards.
As any player of Shining in the Darkness knows, if you got a single town you better make it cozy and make the state of it change as you progress with NPCs saying new things. Sadly, probably due to being rushed, Light Crusader town is amusing but mostly static. The game acknowledges only three villagers that you rescue. Everybody else? Who knows. Shops don't change either. That also brings me to complaint that items, including gold, that enemy drop are all over place. Lowly slimes give a lot of great ones, for some reason. There is shortage of gold until you find easily grindable arena then you will buy everything.
Protip: To start your adventure pay attention to details in graveyard. An evidence of entrance has been left.
So, isometric. That's isometric, boys! Just like Landstalker, but instead of abusing isometric mechanics the devs here just used it for fancyness and puzzles. While puzzles use only diagonals, you and enemies can move in all 8 directions. Albeit it feels like it something they hacked in once engine was done as the camera jitters when you move non-diagonally. And there are now shadows under platforms and main hero so platforming is no problem in this one. Isometric background don't hide anything behind either.
The combat here is rather simplistic. Just slash with B button. Circle around enemy and slash. You can also do slash while jumping that turns into leap toward nearby enemy, sorta helping you to aim self. It does however have big awesome bosses made from multiple separate parts, often spheres. Best of Treasure tradition, now in isometric. Albeit final boss sucks. Static and feels like devs set wrong damage numbers. Then again, unavoidable attacks, ghm.
Protip: Sword slash reflects some projectiles.
To help with combat, there is magic. You got four elements and you can combine them to get a total of 15 ones. Most are just damage stuff, not sure if there is any elemental defence on enemies either. Mixes with water however give few utility ones, including healing and shield.
Oh, and inventory. Just health stuff and some quest ones. And for some reason cheese, wines, water and blue potions that you get a lot just fix reverse control curse you get from zombies, mostly wasting slots. And some rare potions that are too expensive and unexplained for me to care. Nice sort button tho.
Protip: “Turn undead” actually kills undead.
Now, where it's at are puzzles. There are a lot of them. Each puzzle is mostly confined to a single room. Did I tell you that dungeon is made up from rooms that mostly have a single objective? None the less, the puzzles here are challenging and there were a few “aha” moments so I've enjoyed the game. The core puzzles are made from physics pushing mechanic. Cubes, rolling balls and timing explosives, pressure plates. You can't grab, only push diagonally. The only thing I can complain about is inconsistency when it comes to balls pushing other balls. In one room pushing two balls from south would make opposite one roll off while pushing just lightly moved the opposite one.
Also, it's really weird how you can push NPCs around like objects. Atmospheric?
I don't think that pacing is all too good however. I've greatly enjoyed the first floor but on some floors I felt like “another puzzle room already”, slightly annoyed. Not to say that I didn't like em once done, but.
You save by finding save points. And you get game over when you die. No respawn with half-money lost here.
When you pause in game and go into Modes, there are three options to set. Damage numbers is obvious, I recommend you to turn it on. Window is stuff like “got item x” or “MOAR FIRE” for running out of magic, inoffensive. Item auto use will use any health item as soon as you lost the required amount of health, meaning that it will go through weak food very quickly. Seeing how game has magic fountains around to restore health, most players should turn it off.
Graphics here are pretty great with something to look at and few enemies having bloodless, short yet brutal death animations. Treasure have also tried out some flat-shaded polygons and vectors here and there, making it super fancy. There is even a little detail where background tiles that face south have darker palette, giving it some shaded appearance. And it has one of the best water on the platform!
Music was awesome as well, the awesome theme booming on the first floor and is now stuck in my head and there were few ambient tracks as well, not something you would usually hear in Genesis game. Hearing main character voice for rooms such as “answer the riddle” gave it a strange charm. Sadly, presentation is lacking, consisting of static title screen and “woah, dude, gradients”.
Overall, the game provides a fun challenge yet feels rushed. But nice.
